They could eradicate The Billy Goat curse, finally trap the mysterious black cat that ran by the dugout at Shea in 1969, patch the hole in Leon Durham’s glove by which the 1984 pennant slipped away with four-leaf clovers, save the life of the interfering 26-year-old lifelong Cubs fan who took the 23rd out toward the Cubs’ first World Series in 58 years away from Moises Alou.

The latest was the most unbelievable of all. Mark Prior was mowing Marlins down, up 3-0, the joyous countdown proceeding like clockwork 58 years in the winding, when Steve Bartman, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow reincarnated, reached up like almost any fan would.

Milk spilled that will grow rancid in the streets amidst wailing for who knows, another 58 years, if the Cubs didn’t use their absolute last chance in Game 7 to get it done.

“If the Cubs win, people will joke about it,” said Ron Cohen, Bartman’s next door neighbor. “If the Cubs lose, it will be unfortunate that he will have to face a lot of aggravation, probably.

“I think it will last for life. It will be part of Cubs’ lore, with The Curse and whatever else they build into it.”

Bartman remained in hiding, for good reason. His sentence would be a lifetime without parole, convictions of three counts of dorkiness, two of aggravating aggravated and assault-intending fans, one of simply being a poor shmoo in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I’m almost 100 per cent sure that I had a clean shot to catch it,” said Alou. “But at the same time, I feel kind of bad for the guy because every fan in every ballpark, the first reaction they have is that they want a souvenir. Nobody’s thinking about the outcome of the game.

“I was very upset when it happened because I was there. Hopefully, he won’t regret it the rest of his life if he’s a Cub fan. Maybe we can take the load off that guy by winning the game.”

The Cubs know they screwed up enough on their own after it happened and that it could have been anybody. But that won’t stop it being Bartman, Bartman, Bartman forever, if this got away.

What was the guys listening to in those earphones? Satanic chants? If he wanted to see the Cubs in a World Series in his lifetime, why would he want to shorten his life?

The mob was angry and scary. Security did its job a lot better than did Kyle Farnsworth, and Bartman survived, but he became the scapegoat replacing Billy Sianis’s Billy Goat, if Kerry Wood didn’t ride to the Cubs’ rescue like he did in Game 5 in Atlanta, like the Cubs continued to express confidence he would, not that they would say anything else if they truly felt otherwise.

“Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow,” sang Sammy Sosa as he left the clubhouse.

Dusty Baker, who had seemed crushed after his team blew a 5-0 lead in the seventh inning of Game 6 of last year’s World Series, was upbeat with confidants after he left the podium.

“It has nothing to do with the Curse,” had said the Cubs’ manager. “It had to do with fan interference, the very uncharacteristic error by [Alex Gonzalez] because he doesn’t miss anything. And then they just started hitting.

“They are an explosive club. We had Pudge [Rodriguez] 0-2 and he gets a hit. Gonzalez has only made 10 errors all season. He doesn’t miss anything. After that, we couldn’t stop the bleeding.”

Prior who had been almost lights out, began to fall apart. Reliever Farsnsworth gave up a three-run double to Mike Mordecai. The Marlins kept scoring and scoring, while the Cubs were falling off a cliff in slow motion, pinching themselves, wishing to wake up from a nightmare beyond comprehension. One chance at redemption or take it to their graves.